Monday, 3 December 2012

A rumour has emerged over the weekend that Apple is in advanced negotiations with Intel for Chipzilla to make processors for Cupertino's iPhones and iPads. Given Apple and Intel's histry this would seem like a logical move. As well as this history, Intel has both the technological expertise and capacity to produce the processors. This would simultaneously boost Apple's chip production and allow them to diversify from TSMC, who are Samsung's chip producing replacements next year!

At the moment the sources think that there's normal tit-for-tat negotiation going on, with Apple threatening to switch to ARM for its computers, while Intel would very much like to see their chips in the iPad, in exchange for manufacturing all of what Samsung does now.

The interesting thing in all of this is that Intel must have a chip that they think can compete with ARM chips in both battery life and performance up their sleeve! What do you think would you like to see Intel chips inside Apple's portables?
Via PhoneArena.

XBMC for Android released in a very Beta state!

Some of us techies love XBMC for their home entertainment solutions, but now the lads and ladies behind the project are bringing their expertise to Android! The only thing is that it will be available "soon" and unfortunately at the moment that is the vital word. There is currently an APK available if you'd like to give it a little whirl, but it is definitely a beta release!

It's also worth mentionong that if your device doesn't support the NEON extension, this app simply won't work for you. Thankfully you don't need to test it for yourself to see if it works, although of course you can! There's a full list of compatible phones and tablets here.

It's just worth bearing in mind that XMBC is designed for the big-screen experience and as such you might run into a few issues hitting all them little buttons if you boot it up on your phone, but at least touch input and gestures are supported!
Via AndroidPolice.

Is LG planning to release their own chips?

If the rumours are to be believed then it seems like we may well have a new chip designer on the block to compete with the likes of Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm and Nvidia. The challenger is set to be Samsung's South Korean competitor LG.

The guys over at LG have already struck a licensing deal with ARM for the Cortex-A15 CPU and Mali-T604 GPU designs, so it's reasonable to think that the first LG-designed processors will be based on these technologies.

The sources claim that LG's first chips will be used in smartphones and smart TVs. The first processors is dubbed H13, and it's likely to make an appearance at next year's CES. If you're wondering what this enigmatic name means well it's surprisingly simple. The "H" reportedly stands for Home Entertainment, while "13" is the year it gets released. That's why this first one is expected to land in a bunch of TV's instead of a smartphone, but it'll be good to see what LG can muster!
Via PhoneArena.

In other news:

Some Tumblr users are currently reporting that their pages are being replaced with dozen duplicate posts from a hacker collective. The hacks come with the warning that deleting the malicious posts will delete the Tumblr page in question (noone knows if this is actually true, but it seems that it isn't at the moment). Tumblr have confirmed the issue told those affected to "please log out of all browsers that may be using Tumblr". The hackers seem to disagree with "blogging" and they think that Tumblr users should take their own lives!

Tumblr for their part calim that they're "working to resolve the issue as swiftly as possible," but there's no timescale available at the moment. The best thing to suggest at the moment is to take precautions; update your password and steer clear until Tumblr gets things under control!Via Engadget.

SMS just turned 20 years old today, it's hard to imagine a world without!Via BBC.

There's been a rumour floating around on Twitter that WhatsApp may be bought out by Facebook in the near future! We'll let you know if we hear something official!

Sony is pushing an update to a few of their ST-Ericsson NovaThor-based phones; the Xperia P, Xperia U, Xperia Go and Xperia Sola are all getting an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update which brings bug fixes and performance tweaks, improvements to Wifi connectivity, tethering, camera, NFC and messaging. If you have one of these phones the update will pop up in your notification bar if you're on ICS. If you're still rocking Gingerbread you should get PC Companion or Macbridge fired up and get the update that way! If you're wondering when your Jelly Beans will arrive well they're still on course for early next year!Via Android Central.

Today there's been rumours that Microsoft may be updating their Surface line-up next year with a couple of alternatives. There's set to be a Surface 2 which will be equipped with a 8.6-inch screen and powered by a Qualcomm processor. The Surface Pro 2 can reportedly boast an 11.6-inch display and an AMD Temash processor, while Surface Book is outfitted with a 14.6-inch screen and an Intel Haswell processor and it may well be a convertible tablet! The Haswell processor isn't due to be ready for mass consumption until the second half of next year so these may well be replacements for this years Surface tablets!Via Slashgear.

The Android 4.1.1 update is now rolling out to Samsung Galaxy S3's on Bell, Telus, SaskTel and Rogers in Canada! The update promises better performance, a reorganized settings menu, two home screen modes, the Jelly Bean notification bar, Google Now and the resizable pop-up play screen!Via SamMobile.

Pocket-Lint believe that Nintendo sold 40,000 Wii U's in the UK on their opening weekend! Not quite as impressive as the 400,000 sold in the first week in the States, but given the population difference and limited stock, Nintendo should be more than happy with that!Via Pocket-Lint.

uSwitch have published their list of the top 10 selling of UK smartphones at the moment. The list below is interesting because the iPhone 5 is behind it's smaller and older 4S brother and there is not a single Lumia or Windows Phone device on the list, despite the Lumia 920 'selling out' everywhere, perhaps Nokia did manage to generate some hype by claiming to sell out of the phone! The full list is here:1. Samsung Galaxy S III

Some of you may have had issues with Swiftkey if you've update to Android 4.2. Swiftkey have today issued a statement with some advice to hopefully get it working again:

"This is a rare but unfortunate report that we've recently been made aware of. We have contacted the Android development team to understand what caused this in their code. We are doing what we can on our end to resolve this issue for those affected... Meanwhile, please re-download SwiftKey from the same storefront you originally purchased it from. As long as you are signed into the same account that you originally used to purchase the application, you will not be charged a second time. Also, remember that to get SwiftKey fully installed, you may need to click on the SwiftKey 3 icon in your app drawer to initialize the installation process." Via AndroidCentral.

Sony has prepared a new SDK add-on for developers who're aiming to make apps for Sony's Xperia tablets. The SDK features documents, code examples and tools that will let you create apps which “make use of the special features included in Sony tablets,” including “small apps”, the IR blaster and a couple of other things the Xperia Tablet S rocks!

This probably isn't the most appealing proposition to Android developers given the limited adoption of Sony's Xperia Tablet, if the SDK was compatible with the old Tablet S then there might be a bit more interest because that tablet ended up in quite a few people's hands! If you're interested the SDK is here!Via IntoMobile.

Android Central today noticed that Sony may well have a Jelly Bean update for Xperia S owners ready by the end of the month! The tweet from Sony Mobile UK embedded below says it all!

And finally, earlier today it was widely speculated that Nokia were thinking about switching to Android when a job advertisement asking for a Linux engineer was spotted on their sites. It seems it was nothing quite as exciting as that as Doug Dawson from Nokia clarified on Twitter that:

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